Coronavirus update

Please be wary of using social media to inform you of
business support, as there are far too many armchair experts out there, and a
lot of the support is dependent on specific circumstances.

At the moment you will be getting information as soon as we
do, however, there is very little detail to go with the headlines, and our
information network slowly fills in the details as it becomes known. If you are
unsure about anything in the government support package, please feel free to
get in touch with us to discuss things further.

This is the current support:

a Coronavirus Job
Retention Scheme

deferring VAT and Income
Tax payments

a Statutory Sick Pay
relief package for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs)

a 12-month business
rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery businesses
in England

small business grant
funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate
relief or rural rate relief

grant funding of £25,000
for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a
rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000

the Coronavirus Business
Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs
through the British Business Bank

a new lending facility
from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms,
helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through
loans

the HMRC Time To Pay
Scheme

Please take care with some of the support headlines – the
devil is in the detail: e.g. you may not be eligible for some things if you are
a director of a company; you may not pay staff unless they are actually laid off
and not working at all (furloughed) – and there are also legal issues to ensure
that you carry out the process correctly. For the detail, please review the
information in the link above (which will be kept up to date by the
government), and then call / email us if you need further clarification or
assistance.

VAT is the only tax that has been deferred. The VAT return
is still due on time and the VAT liability will still be due, but not until
April next year (for VAT due from now until June). Other taxes are still due,
but if you want to keep cash in the business, please make use of the time to
pay facility offered by HMRC. The July income tax payment on account has also
been deferred, but only for the self-employed (not company directors)

The loan scheme still depends on whether or not the business
has a viable proposition regardless of the current crisis – and a personal
guarantee will probably be required (regardless of the government guarantee).
This will also depend on which bank you apply to.

We are hoping that there will be announcement soon from the
government regarding self-employed, as very little has come out so far to help
this group. Please bear in mind that if you are a company director, the rules
may be different.

In these difficult and unprecedented times, rest assured
that we are here to help where we can and we are trying to keep some sort of
normality regarding your business affairs. Please get in touch for any help and
support we can offer.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update

As a valued member of our community, we appreciate the trust you place in us to make sure all your critical services continue.

We are committed to an evidence-led and common-sense approach to containing the coronavirus outbreak and mitigating its impact on employees, customers and our wider business operations.

Please be assured we are preparing for our services to continue as normal. We have business continuity plans in place to minimise the risk of infection and make sure we can continue to deliver a business-as-usual service to our customers should an infection occur at an office. These include implementing clear guidelines for employees, providing support and advice for anyone who needs to self-quarantine, and issuing guidance on following safe hygiene practices across the organisation.

You can find further information on Covid-19 below to keep you updated: